Stigma Effect

Translator: Skye  Editor: thursdays

Yuriel was famous for her keen senses since her days at the grand duchy.

On days when monsters invaded the mansion, Yuriel would find herself in a state of anxiety all day. Unlike those who resided in the main building, which was protected by the knights, the servants living in the annex were under direct threat from a monster attack.

Whenever Yuriel, who was usually always smiling, showed signs of anxiety from the morning, the servants all gathered together and spent the night in the same room.

The servants who were hostile towards Yuriel sometimes ended up being the first victims to the monsters.

‘What would she know? I’m going to sleep by myself. I have to get up early tomorrow morning. Does it look like I have time to be hanging around with you all?’

It was because the servant went back to their room all alone like that. Although the monsters were strong, if several servants combined their strength—especially the stronger young men—they would be able to deal with at least one monster at a time.

Those who had been able to get through the nights safely like that, narrowly escaping death, all became remarkably friendly to Yuriel.

‘Do you want me to do that for you?’

‘You must be tired. How about you take a nap?’

As a result, Yuriel never suffered any hardships during her time at the Mogris mansion.

But unlike in the past, when she only dreamed of monsters invading the Mogris mansion, her dream this time showed a train derailing. Yuriel had a feeling this dream would soon become a reality.

A huge monster had appeared and, as a result, the train ended up derailing.

Ruminating on her memories, Yuriel was about to jump out of her seat but stopped herself at the last minute.

I think I just had a very strange dream aside from the prophetic dream…what was it?

The last scene of her dream, where the train derailed, caused all memories of anything that happened before it to fly out the window. But Yuriel was sure she had another dream before the train accident.

Was it another prophetic dream warning of danger?

In a daze, Yuriel blinked as she tried retracing her memory before abruptly standing up from her seat. This was not the time for such worries. The train was heading towards its destination, the imperial capital.

“T-train. How do I stop this train?”

Yuriel got up in a hurry and looked around. She had to stop the train right away. She spotted a man dressed in a suit just in front of her, leisurely reading a book. Judging from his natural behavior, he looked like someone who was familiar with traveling by train.

Yuriel picked up her luggage and approached him.

“Excuse me, sir.”

At Yuriel’s call, the man tilted his head, raising a long finger to point at himself, silently asking for confirmation.

“Yes, yes. That’s right. You, sir.”

“Is something wrong?” he asked affably.

He placed a bookmark in the book he was reading, putting it down on the seat next to him before turning back to Yuriel with a kind face.

The man left a favorable impression on her. He was quite handsome with his uncommon blonde hair and blue eyes.

Unlike his soft-looking appearance, his handling of the book was rather rough. Type printing had developed significantly over the years, so it wasn’t too difficult to find books, but it wasn’t cheap, either.

The book he was reading was made of thick covers and high-quality white paper. The man, who threw such an object as if he were handling a block of stones by the roadside, looked up at Yuriel and tilted his head.

“Miss?”

He’s not as handsome as the man I saw in my dream… wait, what am I thinking? What kind of man did I see in my dream….?

Yuriel widened her eyes at the sight of the man in front of her, who was giving her a puzzled look. She inwardly berated herself for getting lost in thought during such an urgent situation.

“Do you know where I need to go to stop this train?”

“Stop the train? We’re about to arrive at the destination...Hm, well. It’ll stop on its own in the next 10 minutes.” The man explained kindly as he took out a pocket watch and checked the time.

He continued in a kind, but dismissive tone, as if he were dealing with a country bumpkin, “Miss, the passengers aren’t the ones who stop the train. The conductor is the one who controls the train and it’ll stop at the appointed destination.” He added an eye smile as if it would be enough.

“I know that! But...before we get to the station, this train…!”

Yuriel, who raised her voice, abruptly closed her mouth.

Who would believe her if she were to tell them that monsters would soon appear and cause the train to derail? This wasn’t the Grand Duke’s residence, where everyone was kind to her.

What should I do? No one is going to believe me, and I can’t just jump off the moving train by myself.

As Yuriel held her luggage tightly, her face paled.

At this rate, am I going to die before even getting to see my master’s face?

The man stared at Yuriel—who was visibly white—then glanced at the cover of the book he was reading. He said, “The book I’m reading now has a character who is trying to stop the train just like you. Miss, by any chance, did you hear some kind of dangerous information like this character?”

“What?”

“Maybe something like the train being loaded with explosives, or perhaps there’s a dangerous person on board that we have to hunt down before we get to the station.”

“...Would you help me stop the train if I told you I knew such information?” Yuriel asked with a nervous look.

“If there is indeed such a dangerous risk, why wouldn’t I help you?”

The man rose from his seat with an amused expression. When he was sitting, his frame didn’t look very large because of his pretty face, but he suddenly looked large enough to overpower Yuriel with just one hand once he stood up.

“I don’t have anything urgent today...and your face looks desperate, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give you a hand.”

“Are you really going to help me?” Yuriel asked in a startled voice. She didn’t expect him to agree to help her so easily.

She was told to be careful of people she was seeing for the first time...but it seemed there were still good people out there. Yuriel was thrilled.

“Yes, of course. Stopping the train has always been something that I’ve wanted to do at least once in my life.” The man wheezed and laughed, pointing to the luggage she was carrying.

“Are you going to be carrying that around the whole time?”

“Ah.”

“If you’re worried about losing your luggage, here’s your locker. It seems you didn’t see it because it was up there. You do have to insert a silver coin to use it, but its security is certain.”

A silver coin. It was an amount that was enough to cover all her meals at the Mogris estate, and an amount that should be saved as much as possible right now because it was impossible to predict how expensive things would be in the capital.

The man seemed to assume that the reason Yuriel chose not to use the locker was simply because it was out of her line of sight.

He stretched out his hand, implying that he would put the luggage in for her himself.

Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to simultaneously move with her luggage in her arms in their urgent situation, Yuriel handed it over to him with tears.

When she took a silver coin out of her purse—which she had kept safely guarded in her arms—and handed it over, the man’s eyebrows went up with interest.

“This is a silver issued in the Mogris domain. I see you’ve come up from Mogris.”

The front side of the coin was stamped by a dynamic horse seal representing ‘Mogris.’

The value of silver coins was all the same, but the minters, like the Grand Duke of Mogris, engraved their seals on the front of the coins to show off their power. It was a trend among nobles in the imperial capital these days.

The man fiddled with and scanned the silver coin with interest before putting it into his pocket.

“I’ll keep this as a souvenir.”

Yuriel was dumbfounded. It felt as if she had been slapped on the cheek.

Souvenir? Do the people here celebrate robbing other people’s money?

From well-managed hair to a suit made of high-quality material, not the mention there was also the golden pocket watch he had pulled out earlier and the expensive book. A man who seemed to lack nothing had just robbed Yuriel of her little silver coin.

“Give it back! I have to secure my luggage and quickly stop the train!”

“Ah, yeah. It was just a joke… I’m not some ruffian that’s after your money.”

“Hurry!” Yuriel shouted, slapping the man’s arm.

“Yes, yes, but there’s someone I’d like to show this to so I’ll be taking it as a souvenir. I’ll let you use my silver coin instead.”

The man gave her a poised smile, rubbing his arm as he made an excuse. But his muttering excuse fell on deaf ears—he had already been branded as a thief in her eyes.

He pushed the coin in the slot and instructed Yuriel to put her palm over the locker.

“When you need to take your luggage out, put your palm back there and it’ll open. Once you open it, you’ll need to insert another coin to close it again so only open it when it’s time to get off…”

Following the man’s instructions, Yuriel placed her hand over the designated area and felt a current running along her palm. It was an unpleasant sensation that made her spine tingle.

“That’s all then? All right, now, let’s hurry up and go stop the train. Sir, if you could lead the way.”

Yuriel rubbed her palm with her other hand, urging the man to hurry. The man put his luggage in a separate locker then stood in front of her.

“The engine room is just ahead. We’ll be able to stop the train before we get to the station even if we don’t hurry.”

After hearing his relaxed voice, Yuriel checked the windows with a side-glance. It was similar to the scenery she had seen in her dream. At this rate, she predicted the monsters would attack in less than five minutes.

“Even so, I think we should hurry a little bit. Let’s go,” Yuriel said nervously, but the man asked leisurely with a carefree look on his face. “By the way, miss, what’s your name?”

Yuriel let out a sigh at his easy attitude but answered while shoving his back.

“It’s Yuriel.”

“Aha, so it’s Yuriel. Your last name?”

“I don’t have one, I don’t have parents.”

“I see. Yuriel, an orphan from the Grand Duchy of Mogris… Good. I have everything I need to know, so let’s get going.”

The man, who muttered something while looking in her direction, smiled and finally began walking forward.

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